Ayurvedic Medicine

Considered by many scholars to be the world’s oldest healing science, Ayurvedic Medicine is a holistic approach to health and wellbeing designed to help people stay vibrant and healthy while realizing their full human potential.

Thousands of years before modern medicine provided scientific evidence for the mind-body connection, the sages of India developed Ayurveda, which continues to be one of the world’s most sophisticated and powerful mind-body health systems.

The term Ayurveda is taken from the Sanskrit words “ayus”, meaning life or lifespan, and “veda”, meaning knowledge. The basic principle of Ayurveda is to prevent and treat illness by maintaining balance in the body, mind, and consciousness through, but not limited to the following remedies:

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Herbal formulas

Healthy nutrition and eating practices

Ayurvedic and Yoga psychology

Yoga, breathing and Meditation practices

Healthy lifestyles and routines

Balanced sleep and sexual activity

Exercise and recreations

Music and Arts

Daily Ayurvedic home purification practices

Sensory therapies

Strong purification treatments (panchakarma)

Ayurvedic Spa Treatments

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The 5 Great Elements and the 3 Doshas of Ayurvedic Philosophy

There is an incredibly vast field of knowledge and wisdom in the ancient traditional system of Ayurveda. The following is a simple yet profound platform in which to begin to understand how Ayurveda works.

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Ayurveda explains that there are five elements that make up everything in our universe including our bodies. They are Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether. These five elements come together into three harmonious pairs to form the biological humors in the body called the 3 doshas.

All three doshas exist within each of us and carry out specific vital roles and functions in our organism. We experience good health when these doshas are in balance and functioning properly. It’s when they increase, decrease or become unbalanced due to our lifestyle, food, emotions and/or external factors (like the weather), we experience imbalance and illness. As a form of holistic medicine, Ayurveda teaches us how to prevent the doshas from going off kilter, describing the specific diet and lifestyle that’s suited to our own unique constitutional makeup.

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Vata Dosha (Wind Energy)

Vata is composed of the space and air elements. From a qualitative perspective, vata is dry, light, cold, rough, mobile, subtle, and clear. It is the subtle energy of movement and is therefore often associated with wind. Vata is linked to creativity and flexibility; it governs all movement—the flow of breath, the pulsation of the heart, all muscle contractions, tissue movements, cellular mobility—and communication throughout the mind and nervous system.

Pitta Dosha (Fire Energy)

Pitta is principally made up of the fire and water elements and is an amalgamation of the hot, sharp, light, liquid, oily, and subtle qualities. Pitta is neither mobile nor stable, but spreads—much as the warmth of a fire permeates its surroundings, or as water flows in the direction dictated by the terrain. Pitta is closely related to intelligence, understanding, digestion, and transformation; it governs nutrition and metabolism, body temperature, and the light of understanding.

Kapha Dosha (Water Energy)

Kapha is composed of the earth and water elements. It is heavy, slow, cool, oily, smooth, soft, dense, stable, gross, and cloudy. Kapha lends structure and solidity to all things; it provides the cohesiveness needed to maintain a particular form. Kapha also hydrates all cells and systems, lubricates the joints, moisturizes the skin, maintains immunity and protects the tissues. Kapha is often associated with water energy, and with love and compassion.